Awaking early again in Lalibela, we headed out to tour one more rock hewn church before leaving on another long 8-hour road trip to Bahir Dar. The church we saw that morning, Emmanuel Church, was the best yet and we were all glad we didn’t skip it. There was an underground tunnel that we stumbled through in the pitch black. This tunnel was reportedly used to transport the Eucharist elements from one church to the other.

We were given special permission to take a flash photo of the priest who holds King Lalibela’s ancient crosses. He shielded his eyes from the flashes with cool shades (sunglasses). It made the scene quite anachronistic.

On the road again, we bumped along through the countryside. We tried to remain as comfortable as was possible and hold our tongues when we came within inches of one of the many goats and donkeys sharing the road. One of our vehicles provided a less than desirable amount of shock absorption. We put our sickest team members in the front seats. Those who were still strong amused themselves by laughing at the biggest bumps in the road. Our heads often hurt more then our behinds from hitting the roof of the trucks. We tried to get some video footage but are convinced that there will be no substitute for having been present on this journey.

To help you understand, we’ve come up with the following:

Top 12 Ways to Know You are on an Ethiopian Road

1. Bay Area traffic sounds terrific
2. You have a tough time deciding whether to pad your bottom or your head
3. You fear for you life and that of the livestock at every turn
4. You can’t read the map until you pull over and stop
5. You can’t drink water without getting a shower also
6. When you talk, you sound like one of the sheep along the road
7. There are 1000-times more donkeys, goats, sheep, and people on the road than vehicles
8. The driver spends more time honking at donkeys than stepping on the brakes
9. You don’t realize you have a flat tire until someone tells you
10. You pass a 16-wheeler with a goat “surfing” on top
11. You think you’ve died and gone to heaven, but then realize you’re just on a paved road
12. The “ladies room” has a beautiful 360 degree view for a hundred miles in all directions

Arriving in Bahir Dar, we had a great dinner at a nice hotel on the edge of Lake Tana—Ethiopia’s largest. We waited while our hosts secured rooms at a less expensive establishment. They left us behind because they knew our presence during price negotiations would not be to our advantage. The rate would be doubled if they saw us “firenges.” We were glad to have hot showers and mosquito-netted beds that night. We wondered if anyone would ever swim in the green-clouded pool—the only one we have seen so far. Overall, the place was nice. Some of us had our best nights’ sleep to date.